Europe has, especially since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine highlighted the need for energy security, figured out that natural gas is a key component to solving the energy trilemma – affordable, reliable and secure energy.

Now, emerging countries are beginning to realise that they too can look to gas to meet those same needs, a morning session July 11 heard.

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Jack Fusco, CEO of Cheniere Energy, said experience in the US with using natural gas to provide secure, reliable and affordable energy dates back to 2007, when carbon dioxide emissions there peaked.

“Today, we’ve dropped those emissions by 50%, give or take,” he said. “The majority of that 50% was because of coal to gas switching in America.”

Now with LNG, Cheniere is exporting its experience to reduce carbon emissions as quickly as possible, Fusco added.

“That’s why one of our tankers, if it goes to displace a coal-fired power plant, helps the world to breathe 250,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide less,” he said. “That’s how we’re helping with the energy trilemma.”

Keith Martin, chief commercial officer at PetroChina, noted that Europe, which realised early on that renewables couldn’t replace Russian piped gas sup- plies, moved reluctantly to LNG imports, and it remains “massively exposed” to price spikes. Its balancing mechanism consists of a small amount of storage and demand response – business will start to shut down.

“Compare that to Asia, and to China in particular, where gas is seen as an absolutely essential part of the energy transition – it’s seen as supportive, and it’s seen as necessary as well.”

But Tan Sri Tengku Muhammad Taufik, CEO of Malaysia’s PETRONAS, cautioned that the task of obtaining affordable, reliable and secure energy in emerging economies is not going to be easy or smooth, largely because the path to decarbonisation is being charted by those far from the emerging economies of Asia.

“We’ve often heard the narrative around the global south, building up an angst or anger against what seems to be distant unrealistic levels set by people far away,” he said. “How will businesses in Bangkok respond to a policy decision made in Brussels?”

Asia has economies that range in GDP per capita from less than $2,000 to more than $9,000, and in the context of the energy trilemma, many in Asia are pursuing the very growth in energy prosperity “that has been enjoyed here” for much of the past century.

“Asking emerging Asia to pivot in the space of less than a decade is patently unfair, it is patently unrealistic, and with regards to setting hurdles and targets which are unrealistic, they’re not going to listen,” he said. “For many families in Asia and Africa, it is more about being able to put food on the table next week than to ensuring a sustainable future decades hence.”

Dealing with the energy trilemma, he said, is a very complex and systemic challenge.

“It won’t be solved by one government, it is going to take multiple governments collaborating,” he said. “It’s going to take private sector and industry working together, and it’s going to take the financial institutions to gain a hell of a lot more energy literacy than they’ve shown so far.”

This feature was originally published in the LNG2023 Daily, produced by NGW during the LNG2023 conference in Vancouver July 10-13.